[1] He joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in 1942 when he was 17 and trained as a radar operator in Harewood and Wigram.

[3] He joined the Labour Party and in 1946 he became the Brooklyn electorate secretary, the seat represented by Prime Minister Peter Fraser, and later became chairman.

Following his election to Parliament O'Brien did not stand for re-election to the city council and his brother Brian (a sports journalist) replaced him on the Labour ticket.

He went as far as to use his importing business to bring goods from Vietnam into New Zealand, directly defying the policy of the Holyoake government.

[13] He was charged over an incident in 1976 in Christchurch, where he allegedly asked two boys back to his motel room for a drink.

[14] O'Brien reaffirmed his rift with Labour at the 1979 Christchurch Central by-election where he endorsed the Social Credit candidate Terry Heffernan.

Rizos told The Guardian: "I talked to him for a year … about all sorts of things, but [the imaginary world] never came up and it pisses me off that I didn't know", he says.

"[17] Rizos scanned these findings during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, and published them in a catalogue titled “Everything", the contents of which are to be exhibited at the Adam Art Gallery in October 2022.